Square Enix’s president says its Japanese studios shouldn’t try to imitate western developers

The president of Square Enix has stated that the company’s Japanese studios shouldn’t try to make games aimed specifically at western players.

In a new interview with Yahoo Japan, Yosuke Matsuda explains that while it’s vital that Square Enix’s games sell well on a global scale, it would be a mistake if its Japanese developers tried to imitate the western style of games.

“Nowadays, the games market is globalised,” Matsuda explained. “The domestic market used to be big, but now it is behind China and the US. If you are not recognised globally, you are not in business.

“But interestingly, if Japanese developers try to imitate Western games, they cannot make good ones. The designs of the monsters, and the visual and audio effects, are all still somewhat Japanese. And players around the world know that this is what makes Japanese games good.”

He added: “Overseas markets are important, but it is not enough to only develop for them.”

Square Enix almost always relies on western studios to create games aimed at western audiences, while its Japanese studios work on games traditionally considered to be ‘Japanese’ in style, such as JRPGs.

Although it published the likes of the Tomb Raider reboot series, Life Strange, Marvel’s Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, these were handled by developers in North America and Europe.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Matsuda reiterated his desire for Square Enix to create ‘play to earn’ blockchain games.

The exec said he believed that focusing only on traditional games would be “not enough” for the company going forwards, and described his vision for titles in which users would create content and be rewarded for their work (Matsuda previously said Square Enix could create its own cryptocurrency).